Hindu-Muslim couple stand up to militants

[Guest guest]

Hindu-Muslim couple stand up to militants

Srinagar, Oct 1

 

A marriage that could have scandalised Kashmir has over time been

accepted by everyone: Except militants.

 

Girija Dhar, a gynaecologist, and Syeed Naseer Ahmad Shah, a doctor,

had a civil marriage in 1965 in London, where they studied. The news

was broken to their parents by letter.

 

Dhar's family at first found the marriage hard to accept. Shah's

parents were more accepting.

 

"It was hard to choose; I knew it was going to hurt my family. My

mother was upset," said Dhar. "It took us time to convince the

families, and so it happened that both accepted us."

 

Kashmir has been ravaged for 13 years by an insurgency. But in 1965,

Shah remembered, things were very different.

 

"There was no Islamic fundamentalism at that time," Shah said. "You

didn't think Hindu or Muslim. That was part of the historical

background."

 

He noted that Kashmiri Islam is rooted in the pacifist tradition of

Sufi mystics and that the state has long been influenced by

Buddhism, still the predominant religion in the Ladakh region.

 

"Marriage is a completely personal affair," Shah said. But the

situation became more difficult after 1989, when the insurgency

erupted and was quickly taken over by militants who wanted all of

Kashmir under Pakistani rule.

 

After two decades of peace and acceptance, the couple began getting

anonymous threats. "They wanted me to get my wife converted," Shah

said.

 

One day in 1991, Girija Dhar left for work and was ambushed. "They

fired on my car, emptying out their Kalashnikovs. There were some

explosives under the car but they didn't explode," she said.

 

She made it out with only a few wounds on her hands. But she was

given armed guards by local authorities, in her capacity as dean of

Srinagar's main medical school. The couple was advised not to go

out.

 

"At that time everybody stayed at home. There was nobody on these

roads past 4:00 pm," said Shah, who since 1997 has served on

Srinagar's city council.

 

They said they have never thought of moving to safer areas, such as

Jammu. Gradually, the threats diminished.

 

But their house on the shores of Lake Dal, with the Himalayas

looming above and waterlilies blooming in the water, resembles a

fortress.

 

Police are always stationed at the door, frisking anyone who wants

to visit. Despite all they have been through, Dhar and Shah still

believe in the basic tolerance of Kashmiri Islam.

 

"The fundamentalists have tried their best to impose their diktats,

to indoctrinate Kashmiris into praying five times a day and for

women to wear the burqa. But they resisted," Dhar said.

 

"Basically, Kashmir is not fundamentalist."